Master's Scholarship Day 5: Hersheypark 20/08/14

Day 5 provided a respite from heavy driving as I was heading to Hersheypark, just 15 minutes from my hotel. As the name suggests, Hersheypark is owned by giant American chocolate manufacturer Hershey, and so many at first believe it is little more than a chocolate factory tour, much like Cadbury World here in the UK. Whilst the overall facility in Hershey does have a similar attraction, Chocolate World, Hersheypark is a bona fide theme park, and although there are plenty of references to the eponymous brand, the place is not completely drenched in chocolatey theming. The park has expanded extensively and successfully over the last couple of decades; the park opened over a century ago in 1907, and for 80 years they dabbled in some small additions, few standing the test of time. In 1996 the transformation began, and since then they've added six major cocoasters (see what I did there?) to their line up. I had dinner in Hershey, which is a beautiful and obviously very affluent little town, on the night of Dorney Park at a lovely seafood restaurant, and in doing so I'd driven right past the park. In fact you virtually drive under it, and so I had a good feel for its atmosphere and layout. I had considered popping in to get a couple of rides under my belt, but felt it was best to save it for when I could enjoy all the rides at once.

The glorious view from the Hershey restaurant a few days before

The first thing I noticed was just how many young children there were. On paper, this is a thrill park, but in reality the target market is not just teens and young adults. There are some fantastic rides, but most have fairly low high restrictions and it means the crowds get quite gross. I headed straight for customer service to enquire about fast passes. The lady was very helpful, and when she saw my Magic Mountain t-shirt, she said simply “You’re not gonna like this...” She was right. The ridiculous set up allows you on all the major rides (good start) only once (ok, fair enough, if the price is right) not at the front or the back (front, fair enough, but not the back? Especially annoying since I’m a single rider), each at an allocated time slot (completely awful). So these nine (or so) rides were spaced out at 45 minutes intervals across the whole day, and I wouldn’t be done until nearly six in the evening. The gap between each ride appointment meant you wouldn’t have enough time to do anything else in between, so you would effectively be in one massive queue for eight hours. I can’t even remember the price, and I quickly declined.

SkyRush

SkyRush's hefty track spine makes it look smaller than it is, but it tops out at a mighty 200ft

The park has a hectic layout, and even if you can see a ride it certainly doesn't mean you can readily get to it. Luckily there's a fantastic official app, which has a fully interactive park map, placing you on it via GPS and giving you directions to each ride. It also has queue times, which were incredibly accurate; even when a ride broke down it would be reported within minutes. To top this all off it doesn't matter if you have mobile service or not, they provide park-wide WIFI coverage. I easily got to SkyRush, therefore, and got in a very reasonable twenty minute queue. SkyRush is the park’s latest major coaster having opened in 2012. It’s an Intamin hypercoaster, a model which focuses on relentless airtime. It also puts a slight twist on the norm with a new model of trains which Intamin has dubbed ‘Wingriders’. Now these are not quite the full wing coasters that Intamin pioneered with Furius Baco (PortAventura) and B&M have since perfected, rather each row has 4 seats, with two above the track and two hanging over the edge, one on each side. It’s a weird concept in that there are two distinct ride experiences, one dangling and one not, but at a glance the trains look very non-restrictive, especially with their dainty lap bar restraints. The early Intamin hypercoasters were and still are considered some of the finest steel coasters around, and so SkyRush had a lot of expectations piled upon it. Early reviews seemed a little apprehensive, and whilst it was clear that it was a good ride, most people felt it didn’t quite deliver what its elder siblings did. The reason unfortunately was the trains themselves, or rather the restraints. Whilst I referred to them as ‘lap bars’, they actually secure you by the upper leg, and for this reason the ride has been nicknamed ThighCrush. So insane is the airtime that it becomes physically painful every time you crest a hill. I'm not usually fazed by pain on rides, and was more excited about the prospect of insane airtime, but my first circuit confirmed the reviews. The track itself is brilliant; the fast lift hill throws you into a twisting drop, you dart over a lake, crisscrossing back on yourself through hill after hill of unyielding zero-g. There are a few signature Intamin ‘twisty’ moments; where the train effortlessly banks side to side, tossing passengers like rag dolls, and eventually you hit the brakes, still with substantial speed. But at the peak of every hill your thighs get squeezed right in the middle of the muscle, it’s a really horrible experience, and the bar gets progressively tighter. It’s unpleasant to the extent that you actually begin to dread the airtime, and considering how highly prized an asset zero-g is, it’s frankly unacceptable from Intamin. I'm sure Hershey are aware of the problem, but I imagine it would cost in the region of $1 million to buy new, regular trains. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very good ride, but what could and should be a top 5 coaster felt dulled on my first try. I wanted to have another go but my phone wisely told me the queue now stood at 45 minutes.

Coaster Corner: This extremity of the park houses SkyRush, SDL, Great Bear and Comet

Sooper Dooper Looper

Probably the greatest name for a roller coaster ever? The ride doesn’t quite live up to its moniker, but it’s a good fun. It’s one of the very earliest steel looping roller coasters, built in 1977, and provides some fun drops and forces. It’s in a great spot too; right alongside the river that runs through the park, along with SkyRush, Comet and Great Bear. It was here that I realised just how ridiculous the fast pass system was. Not only is it inconvenient for the fast pass holders, it’s also terrible for the public: the reason you can’t ride in the front or back seat is that on each fast pass ride there is an allocated central car exclusively for fast pass holders. This means, since the system is so bad and so few people buy it, that the vast majority of trains are dispatched with one completely empty four seat car. It’s crazy. I bottled my frustrations and headed for the second biggest ride (after SkyRush); Storm Runner. This ride was the first of three major Intamin coasters the park built, opening in 2004, and like Kingda Ka the previous day it’s an accelerator. It was the first accelerator to include inversions, and probably has the most inventive layout of any of its model: in addition to the powerful launch and vertical hill it has three wacky loops, one of which has been labelled a ‘Flying Snake Dive’. Awesome huh? Anyway, it was all awesome until I boarded the train and the ride proceeded to break down. Luckily they managed to release the restraints so at least we could get off, but it was still a nuisance.

Storm Runner: I think they call this bit a Cobra Loop?

I checked the queues out for the rest of the park, but nothing close by was reasonable, so I decided to tuck in to my first meal of the day. I had decided that, since I was at Hershey, today would be the day of desserts, so accordingly I had lined up two different locations to spike my insulin. The first one, Craftbarn Desserts, told me that despite being a dessert parlour, they wouldn't be serving desserts until the late afternoon. The second place wasn't even open. I was pissed. With the fast passes, SkyRush’s pain, Storm Runner’s failure and now this, I labelled the park the worst park I had ever been to, except Tibidabo (the ‘except Tibidabo’ will always remain on the end of that phrase, such is my hatred for the place).

Wildcat and Lightning Racer

The last thing I wanted to do whilst in such a bad mood was go on two uncomfortable wooden roller coasters back to back. But the queues were tiny, so I decided to get it over and done with. Fortunately, these are not two uncomfortable wooden roller coasters. The rides stand next to each other, and are both built by Great Coasters International. Lightning Racer, a duelling coaster, was built in 1996 and Wildcat four years later. They both stand about 100ft tall and provide very similar ride experiences: they’re fun, frantic and full of snappy pops of airtime. Neither is world class, but they’re solid rides and really surprised me. I had cheered a little with the discovery of these hidden gems in the corner of the park, but the day turned completely on its head when I found a dessert stall that was very much open.

Lightning Racer's two tracks are a complete mess. But they ride excellently.

The Greatest Thing Ever Eaten

I know this is a theme park site, but for me food plays a large part in the theme park experience. If mountains of chocolate aren’t your thing, skip to the next paragraph.

I like peanut butter. I like it a lot. Historically I was one of those simpletons who proclaim it’s only suitable for savoury dishes, but I’ve seen the error of my old ways in the past year and will now willingly add it to anything. I had developed quite an unhealthy addiction to Reese’s Cups, but we’re fairly devoid of them in the UK so I hadn't really been able to feed the habit. Another American commodity I hadn't tried was the legendary Funnel Cake, which is effectively pancake batter whipped into a bird’s nest shape and deep fried. So when I found on the Hershey website a dessert house serving ‘Reese’s Xtreme Funnel Cake’ my heart was set. Sadly this was at the place that wasn't yet serving desserts, but fortunately I happened upon another funnel cakery (that’s a thing now) that was also serving them. About ten minutes after I had ordered I saw the cook take the cake out of the fryer and put on the plate, with a bit of chocolate and peanut butter sauce. I was ready to explode with anger. How could this possibly constitute Xtreme? But then she opened the treasure chest. She grabbed handfuls of diced peanut butter cups, Reese’s Pieces (like Smarties but with peanut butter inside), chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips and, like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, she topped it off with a masterful cloud of squirty cream. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. It was a physical effort to carry it to my table, let alone begin to eat it. And it was as magical as it looked. I'm a big eater, but I barely got past the halfway point before I had to give up. If you are ever anywhere near Hersheypark, you have to try one of these.

There's a Funnel Cake under there somewhere

Storm Runner

With a spring in my step I was reborn, revitalised, and ready to tackle the rest of the rides. I quickly got on Storm Runner without a delay this time, and it lived up to my expectations. The launches on the accelerators I had been on prior to this were all very good; considerably better than their magnetic equivalents, and this was no different. Coming in at 72mph it’s a speedy one, and the acceleration wasn't noticeably different to Kingda Ka the previous day. The three inversions are all really fun; they’re massive so they’re taken quite slowly, but they’re exhilarating. The let down is the finale; it’s a twisting uphill dive, but it’s taken so quickly that your neck smacks into the over the shoulder harnesses in both directions. Despite this it ranks firmly as my favourite accelerator, just outside my top 10 overall.

Storm Runner's vertical top hat

As I headed back towards the SkyRush area I picked up the mine train, Trailblazer, which was typically dull, but nicely themed and located. Right beneath SkyRush stands Comet, the park’s oldest remaining wooden coaster. It’s a very traditional woodie, and it still rides very well. It’s not out-of-this-world scary, but despite the number of tiny kids riding it, it is quite thrilling and it completes a solid trio of wooden coasters (although topping them off with a world class one wouldn't be a bad idea...).

Great Bear

Great Bear was the park’s first modern steel roller coaster, and is the thrill park regular: the B&M inverter. However, as I mentioned earlier, it’s situated right above a river, which makes for a much more interesting circuit than usual. After the lift hill, rather than dropping, the ride performs a helix 100ft in the air before plummeting to earth in order to avoid the river. It then traverses the typical opening sequence of loop – immelman – zero-g roll, but it pulls them off beautifully. It then dives down to the river, screeching along a weirdly straight piece of track and finally into a corkscrew. It’s short, but it’s really, really good. This is certainly one of my favourite inverters: I’d rank it higher than Montu, Talon and Batman with only Oz’Iris and Nemesis above it.

Great Bear: Kick the sky on this unique B&M Inverter

The sky was darkening and I managed to squeeze in a ride on the park’s standard Boomerang coaster, Sidewinder, which was perfectly fine and enjoyable, before the heavens opened and all the rides closed. I’m not quite sure why they close everything down; all of these rides would be open in the rain in the UK, but perhaps it has something to do with the likelihood of lightning. Either way I decided to head back to the hotel to rest and eat, with the full intention of coming back later.

Side Note – Eating in Harrisburg

I won’t lie, I'm a huge fan of TripAdvisor; with any new city I visit, I suss out the dining situation beforehand, and TripAdvisor is great because it won’t just direct you to all the ultra-expensive fine dining restaurants, it catches the lesser-known good value places in its net as well. I managed to find such a place in Harrisburg. Official BBQ sounds a little suspect, but true to the reviews this place delivers authentic (I assume), delicious and massive southern BBQ for ridiculously low prices. I had a fantastic pulled pork sandwich, fries, beans and a corn muffin (which was particularly amazing) for a grand total of about $12. It’s only ten minutes away from Hersheypark , but it feels very off-road and rural.

'Murica

The Evening

Hershey is simply stunning at night. The park is open until ten in the summer months, and with sunset at about eight, guests get a good amount of time to experience what feels like a whole different park. Every ride is illuminated beautifully, but most notable are the wooden coasters. Their tracks are lined with Christmas tree-style twinkling lights, which flash sequentially as to look like they’re flowing with the motion of the coaster. The whole place looks, feels and even smells like a (very high brow) funfair. It gets so busy and the park is so packed to the rafters with rides that it really feels like you’re in a game of Roller Coaster Tycoon. Despite the busyness, queues were perfectly reasonable, and I started off with another go on SkyRush.

I had a feeling that part of my earlier disdain was due to my choice of seat, right at the back, so this time I decided to slog it out and queue for the very front. I was not disappointed. This was quite simply the best circuit I have ever completed on a coaster. Most, if not all, rides improve in the night due to the atmosphere and lack of visibility, but this was something else: the wind in your face, the brutal airtime, the swooping curves right above the water and best of all; a distinct lack of pain. Once the discomfort is gone you don’t want the ride to hold back, and it certainly doesn't. It’s blow after blow of bliss, and it delivers in every department. I rushed around and did the second row to check if it was a fluke, and it certainly wasn't. I'm not quite sure how I managed to avoid the pain, I did intentionally shift myself further forwards so the bar was more over my waist than my thighs, but it may just be that the front is more comfortable than the back. Either way, SkyRush has shot to my new number two (I don’t feel it can take number one since El Toro was so consistently good).

SkyRush transcends at night. It's simply phenomenal

Fahrenheit

The final ride of the day was a weird one, and honestly one I wasn't expecting much from. Fahrenheit, like SkyRush and Storm Runner, is built by Intamin, and was chronologically sandwiched between the two, having opened in 2008. The reason for name is that the ride has a 95 degree drop (Fahrenheit – degrees – no it doesn't really make sense). More-than-vertical drops are fairly new, but still, Gerstlauer have now built eighteen of them, with drops ranging from 95 degrees all the way to past 120, on their Eurofighter model. The ride then proceeds like a normal multilooper, grinding through six inversions on its course, including a couple of fairly rare elements. Gerstlauer are usually seen as being slightly behind Intamin in terms of quality, so it was curious that Intamin, who are usually so innovative, would effectively mimic a less popular rival's most successful model, and with a not particularly impressive spec to boot. Gerstlauer’s versions can be painful (Saw at Thorpe Park being a prime culprit), but similarly Intamin rides with over-the-shoulder restraints can be too (Colossus at Thorpe Park – wait a second, I see a pattern here!). My time in the queue, however, was spent less thinking about all of this over-analysis and more about how happy I was, and soon I was in the station and in the back row. Maybe it was the darkness, but Fahrenheit kicks butt. From start to finish the ride is flawless. The vertical ascent is nerve-racking, the plus-vertical drop is fantastic, billowing riders from their seats. The plethora of inversions is relentless, but nonetheless incredibly smooth. The highlight is the unusual ‘Norwegian Loop’, which is effectively a dive loop followed immediately by an Immelmann, which thread together into a pretzel shape. And to top it all off, there’s a singular, insane airtime hill thrown in at the end that I had no idea even existed. It places just above Storm Runner, and the only reason it doesn't quite make the top 10 is because of my preference for airtime (which it only has one, albeit very good, moment of) over inversions.

Fahrenheit by day: The Norwegian loop is threaded by a corkscrew

In the space of around eight hours Hersheypark rose from being one the worst parks I’d ever visited to my very favourite. The ride line up is perfect: one world class roller coaster, backed up by three very good supporters, plus three great woodies and a host of fun family rides. The food is fantastic, the lines and app are managed very well (fast track forgiving) and the atmosphere is pure fun. Upon my exit I got a little too big for my boots and decided to have a peanut butter pie, but, in hindsight probably very fortunately, they had run out. And so I just made it home without bursting.

Fahrenheit by night: The vertical lift and more-than-vertical drop are fantastic in the dark